“We’re now entering the third industrial revolution, Anderson said. The first one, which began with the spinning jenny in 1776, doubled the human life span and set population soaring. From the demographic perspective, “it’s as if nothing happened before the Industrial Revolution.”

“The next revolution was digital. Formerly industrial processes like printing were democratized with desktop publishing. The “cognitive surplus” (((Anderson doesn’t have to make them up himself, he also excels at publicly deploying other people’s neologisms, which is equally if not even more praiseworthy))) of formerly passive consumers was released into an endless variety of personal creativity. Then distribution was democratized by the Web, which is “scale agnostic and credentials agnostic.” Anyone can potentially reach 7 billion people. (((Not that anybody, including Psy and Gangnam Style, has ever actually done that.)))

“The third revolution is digital manufacturing, which combines the gains of the first two revolutions. Factory robots, which anyone can hire, have become general purpose and extremely fast. They allow “lights-out manufacturing,” (((

“This will reverse the arrow of globalization,” Anderson said. “The centuries of quest for cheaper labor is over. Labor arbitrage no longer drives trade.” The advantages of speed and flexibility give the advantage to “locavore” manufacturing (((

“Thus the Makers Movement. Since 2006, Maker Faires, Hackerspaces, and TechShops (equipped with laser cutters, 3D printers, and CAD design software) have proliferated in the US and around the world. Anderson said he got chills when, with the free CAD program Autodesk 123D, he finished designing an object and moused up to click the button that used to say “Print.” This one said “Make.” (((Hey, I also shake all over at an elegant button label. Like, Cyrillic ones in Slavic makerspaces. Those look great.))) A 3D printer commenced building his design.

“Playing with Minecraft, “kids are becoming fluent in polygons.” (((

I asked Anderson, “But isn’t this Makers thing kind of trivial, just trailing-edge innovation?” “That’s why it’s so powerful,” Anderson said. “Remember how trivial the first personal computers seemed?” (((I can sure remember how hard they were to talk about. People used to flee headlong, and nowadays they talk about nothing else.)))